The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Environmental activists yesterday warned The Bahamas must “practice what it preaches” to secure financial assistance at an upcoming global summit to help minimise climate change impacts.

Sam Duncombe, reEarth’s president, told Tribune Business this nation “cannot have it both ways” by demanding funding from developed nations to assist with Hurricane Dorian rebuilding when it was guilty of similar practices blamed for contributing to global warming.

While The Bahamas was correct to point the finger at major industrialised nations for the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change and sea level rise, she argued that it needed to demonstrate it was committed to the same standards that it is demanding of others.

Calling for words to be turned into actions ahead of the United Nations’ (UN) COP26 climate summit in Glasgow later this months, Mrs Duncombe argued that The Bahamas needed to abandon any oil exploration and refining; steer away from cruise industry-led development; and reduce Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) reliance on fossil fuels via a renewable energy switch.

“It’s an opportunity for us to put a strong message forward,” she told this newspaper of COP26, “but in my opinion we cannot go to these international forums and beg for money when we are doing the same thing ourselves.

“I find it enormously hypocritical for us to go to any global forum to ask for help and money when we are literally complicit in our own demise.” Mrs Duncombe argued that The Bahamas needed to seek “some sort of trade off for keeping oil in the ground”, and not permitting exploration in its waters, much as former environment minister, Romauld Ferreira, had suggested.

And she also suggested that The Bahamas pivot away from the multiple cruise industry investments that the Minnis administration had been promoting, such as Disney’s Lighthouse Point project; ITM/Royal Caribbean’s Grand Lucayan agreement; and Carnival’s Grand Bahama private port, describing the sector as the “most highly-polluting tourism product we can offer”.

Also pointing to the highly-controversial Oban oil refinery project for Grand Bahama, which she hoped was “dead, although these things have a habit of coming back”, Mrs Duncombe also took issue with BPL’s plan to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a generation fuel for its Clifton Pier plant via its proposed deal with Shell North America.

Acknowledging that LNG was a cleaner fuel than the traditional fossil-based products employed by BPL, she argued that “from extraction to exhaust it’s a major polluter. LNG stays in the atmosphere for 20 years. It’s a major green house gas, and has major implications for climate change and sea level rise”.

Prime Minister Philip Davis will lead The Bahamas’ delegation to COP26, with a major focus on participating in talks to develop a financing mechanism that would be used to calculate compensation for countries such as this nation which has already been hit by climate change fall-out via Hurricane Dorian.

International media reports yesterday suggested that COP26 will seek to develop a financing plan to help poorer countries cope with climate change, although it is unclear whether The Bahamas would qualify because it is seen as a relatively developed country due to its high per capita income.

However, Mrs Duncombe argued: “We have to practice what we preach. You cannot go out there and ask for money to help you if you’re not helping yourself. I’m really hoping this administration gets it, and the people around them really help them to understand, the Prime Minister, that we are in crisis at the moment.

“We have to show the world that while we want their help we are committed as a country to moving beyond the situation we are in. That means a serious revamping of how we develop, what we develop, and the kind of development projects we take on.

“I get that we are very happy to point our fingers at the developed countries and say: ‘You are the reason why we are here’. I totally accept and agree with that. But we are also part of the reason why we are there. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot go begging for money for something you are doing too,” Mrs Duncombe added.

“Money is the reason why we are here because it always trumps science and common sense. We know what we need to do, but if money trumps every single decision we’re doomed. All we’re doing is kicking the can down the road and letting the next generation deal with the mess we left because we didn’t have the political and ethical fortitude to do the right thing.”

She was backed by Joe Darville, Save the Bays chairman, who said The Bahamas and world appeared to have made little progress since the first climate-related accords were agreed in Paris in 2015.

Calling on the Prime Minister to “cease that nonsense” about permitting oil drilling in Bahamian waters, Mr Darville added that this nation was “allowing a lot to happen in our air and seas” due to lack of enforcement and regulation.

“If we want to be able to get, as they’ve been begging, to get financial support from developed countries to deal with our problems, we need to demonstrate we are doing something to protect our environment from climate change, sea level rise and so forth,” he said, adding that The Bahamas would “look like a damn fool” if it was not doing what it is demanding of other nations.